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Kanye West has said people just “don’t understand” him and wife Kim Kardashian and bemoaned getting “bashed”.

He was speaking at the Cannes Lions communications and advertising festival in France on Tuesday.

The rapper claimed the couple's much-derided Vogue cover has improved their standing but that it only came after “two years of people not understanding an interracial relationship”.

Kanye said he had recently taken a “bashing” for the notorious "Bound 2" video, where Kim is seen straddling him topless as he rides a motorbike against a CGI background.

He added: “I always say that if Vogue had come out before the "Bound" video then everyone would have been like, “Oh it’s OK” and that’s the endorsement.“It took something established like Vogue to make everything OK and we had to wait. Like we had the wedding and then they were like ‘that’s cool now’ because we were told by people who endorsed it.”

The couple hired a 16th Century fort in Florence for their two-day nuptials in May.

Kanye, 37, continued: “You have to be able to take the lashes when people don’t understand."Two years of people not understanding an interracial relationship, two years of people not understanding the idea of the art world meets the pop world, you have to take the lash and be able to swim in the backlash."

He admitted he gets a “bad rap” for statements so breathtakingly arrogant that they have inspired a “Kanye self-confidence generator” and pushed “Kanye West thinks he’s god” up Google’s search rankings.

Speaking at Cannes, he said: “It’s like we are the creative with teeth, we have the gut feeling that we know that the idea is more important than our personal well-being.

“So a lot of times I will say things that are not for my personal well-being which I think for people to create for their personal well-being is a selfish thing to do and you’re creating to make your life better rather than everyone else’s life better.

“I get bashed so much but create so much, just know that if you want to be a boxer you’re going to get your face beaten constantly but then you may end up being a Mayweather or an Ali at the end of the day.”

The event included Steve Stout, Stephanie Ruhle and Ben Horowitz and discussed the cultural landscape.

Jared Leto, Bono and Ralph Fiennes were also expected to appear at the festival.

MORE KANYE QUOTES FROM CANNES:

“The best thing about the fall of BlackBerry and the rise of Apple is the win of creativity.”

“Black people are allowed to wear big chains and name what they have on, and say out loud what stuff costs."

“I want to take my position as visual and influential to raise the power of a generation.”

hi, welcome back. if you don't mind me asking how could you get back on ontd with a diff username account if the membership is afaik not open rn? did you have to contact the mods telling them you wanna get back in or

I'm sure there are assholes out there who are using that as the basis of their dislike but I think the majority of people who "bash" them do so because they are both very difficult to like and combined are just doubly obnoxious.

To play devil's advocate, a lot of people are totally not cool with interracial dating so I get why that would be a concern to Kanye. But for him to say it's the primary reason why people don't like him dating Kim is fucking ridiculous.